Breezy, yes … but how breezy will it get?

If you like breezy beach weather, and who doesn’t, this holiday week should be right up your alley.

It’s the result of Palm Beach and South Florida getting caught in the middle of two battling weather systems and it looks like a prolonged fight. Those hoping for a prompt start to the rainy season are likely to be disappointed as we’ll stay on the dry side of the battlefield.

The two players: a high pressure system sitting over the Southeastern U.S., which will contribute to the Northeast’s first heat wave of the season. To our south, there’s a developing low pressure system in the Caribbean.

“This will increase the pressure gradient across the area, and an increasing east wind will result,” meteorologist Kim Brabander, with the National Weather Service in Miami, said Monday.

Winds in Palm Beach are forecast to be between 15-20 mph with gusts up into the mid-20s, and that’s expected to continue right on through next weekend. Chances of a stray shower wandering in off the ocean remain low, around 20 percent through the week.

Winds in Miami were already gusting to 25 mph Monday morning.

The big question as we get into next week is what will happen to the low pressure system in the Caribbean. It’s been the focus of quite a bit of speculation over the past two days, since some long-range forecasting models show it developing into a tropical system.

The GFS is the most aggressive and has been alternately taking the disturbance to the east of South Florida toward the Bahamas, into South Florida or up into the Gulf of Mexico. Other models present slightly different scenarios.

But with the start of hurricane season on Wednesday, some early action doesn’t look out of the question.

There’s not much to look at on satellite images yet, but the National Hurricane Center predicts that “cyclogenesis in the form of a weak low pressure center” will develop within the next 72 hours.

At the online weather portal Weather Underground, hurricane expert Jeff Masters has taken note, and adds: “Up until now, wind shear has been too high to allow tropical storm formation in the Caribbean due to the presence of the Subtropical Jet Stream. However, this jet is expected to push northwards over Cuba over the coming week, allowing a region of low wind shear to develop over most of the Caribbean.”

At the Central Florida Hurricane Center, an unofficial website run by weather hobbyists but nonetheless a source of interesting information throughout the hurricane season, site administrator Michael Cornelius said at least the system may enhance afternoon rain chances in Florida, although that doesn’t seem to be in the cards as of yet.

“For those who want to delve into speculation, the highest likelihood is to go over Central America before it could get a chance to develop,” he said.